One of my hosts at Davis, Luke Mahler, is a postdoc who specializes in evolutionary biology of reptiles. He’s been all over the world chasing these ectotherms, and has taken some crack photos. On the way to the airport for my return home, we stopped and looked for some burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) in North Davis. There was indeed a colony; they nest in ground squirrel holes, but here is a telltale sign of an owl-inhabited burrow: tamped down grass around the hole and owl pellets nearby (my photo):
And we did see one owl. My own photos were lame, as I had a point and shoot camera, so from here on in, including the herps, I’ll show Luke’s photos from two days ago. His commentary is indented.
Look closely at the owl – it’s both banded and radio tagged! In both photos you can see a long antenna on its back. Looks like this is a research animal.
It took flight, and Luke got a good shot:
Some reptiles and amphibians (collectively, “herps”) from Luke:
The newts are Rough-skinned Newts (Taricha granulosa), made famous by Butch Brodie and colleagues for their variation in toxicity (which covaries geographically with toxin resistance in garter snakes, one of their principal predators). These ones are from Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve [near Davis] from last spring during breeding season.
The colorful snake is the Pacific Ring-necked Snake, Diadophis punctatus amabilis. These little guys are pretty harmless, but will flash their bright underparts to predators. I’m not sure quite how this is effective, although they exude a nasty cloacal musk, and that may play a role. I believe it’s been suggested that this widespread species mimics coral snakes and is more similar to them in areas where they overlap (i.e., the Deep South and Southwest). They eat a wide variety of invertebrates and small vertebrates (e.g., slender salamanders) typically found in leaf litter or under rocks or logs, which is where they occur.
Finally, the turtle is a young Pacific Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) from Putah Creek, just west of the UC Davis campus.
What great animals! I wish we’d really get spring weather so I could see more of them here. I love the colourful snake!
I saw a frozen frog on the weekend. I figured he was dead but he was just frozen. He thawed & moved around.
I heard some spring(?) peepers near Crawford Lake on Sunday. Today we’re covered in s**w:-(
I heard them too. They are in the pond next to my place so I’ve heard them every morning for the past week. Also heard some other frogs. Stupid snow.
Lovely pics. Really like the one of the owl taking flight.
In my area the Southern Ringneck snake, Diadophis punctatus punctatus, is common. My kids love snakes and catch, observe then release any snake they come across. They have caught many of these, and though small they are real beauties. The Southern is very similar to the pictured Pacific, though the Southern has a characteristic half moon scale pattern down the center of its underside. And yes, they do emit quite the foul odor under certain circumstances.
Thanks! I was the same with snakes when I was a kid (I mostly grew up in Nashville, TN). My parents weren’t big on “permanent” pets, but we were always allowed to catch just about anything and keep it for a week or two, as long as we eventually released it where it came from. I always wanted to see ringnecks because they were the prettiest snakes in the field guides, but couldn’t find any nearby and didn’t have wheels. I’ve more than made up for that at this point though….
Such lovely animals. I miss living in California. Hiking the ‘canyons’ near our apartment with our faithful d*g, hitting the tide pools to look under rocks. *Sigh*.
Ring-necked snakes are venomous, but since they’re both back-fanged and tiny they pose no threat to humans. I don’t see them very often because they’re largely nocturnal. Nice picture.
Good photos, and cute snake.
I’m wondering what the yellow blossoms in the background of the owl pictures are…? It looks like it might be in the mustard family, which makes me think it’s perhaps rapeseed being cultivated for oil…?
b&
Looks like a Brassica of some kind. At this time of year in western Oregon, weedy yellow mustards are blooming, sometimes producing extensive stands. Often they are weedy Brassica rapa, turnip, which produces seeds that can be processed for oil. However, the rapeseed oil also called canola (somehow “rapeseed” had problems with consumer acceptance) is a different species of Brassica.
Of course, for all I can tell from the photo, this may be a commercial canola field.
“I’m wondering what the yellow blossoms in the background of the owl pictures are…? ”
They are badly out of focus.
If you have other photography questions, Ben, just let me know.
Actually, that’s not merely out of focus; that’s bokeh, and photographers shell out some serious dough for bokeh that smooth….
b&
Whether or not it’s a warning of toxicity, the sudden appearance of the red or orange underside of the Ring-necked Snake is startling. That can be enough to cause a predator (bird?) to pause, maybe drop the snake. I think that would give the snake a chance to escape. Probably not as consistently effective as a warning plus a toxin the snake can actually inject into the predator, but the Ring-necked Snake doesn’t have many other defensive tricks. Maybe that bad smell is also bad tasting or somewhat toxic when swallowed?
Well, they are venomous, you know. And a bad smell is a deterrent in itself.
You’re right, they definitely have rear fangs and venom, but my sense is that they don’t use these for defense (although I could be wrong). They tend to be very docile when picked up and handled (i.e., they don’t readily bite), and I doubt their rear fangs and weakly venomous saliva would be effective against most predators (although they almost certainly help with feeding). I’ll ask around and see if I can find someone who knows more.
We know just enough about Ringnecks to make them unusually interesting snakes, not enough to answer the exciting questions! They are fairly small in the East (generally <40 cm), much bigger in the West (up to ~75 cm); with fangs out West, not in the East. Western Ringnecks AND those in FL have coral under-tails and a coiled inverted tail display, in the middle of which is a very stinky cloacal discharge. My bet, a naive predator attacks the apparent "head," gets a mouth/beak full of gross secretion, and never attacks another Ringneck–but who are the relevant predators? Scrub jays have very similarly disjunct distributions…just sayin!
I made myself popular with the snake-and-skink fearing neighbours in Florida: I showed their kids the lovely harmless ringnecks in their garden and told them not to pick up snakes they did not recognise etc etc. An hour later screams of protest came across the road – they had found a ringneck, rushed to show their mother, picked it up, and it had squirted foul cloacal goo everywhere. Very stinky. I may have created and then promptly destroyed future potential herpetologists.
Thanks for weighing in Harry. I didn’t know about the variation in fangs, although I had heard that some of the western subspecies were really big. I wonder what that’s all about (do the diets differ East to West? do the predators?). Interesting point about the scrub jays. Sounds like the group has some great thesis potential!
There is indeed geographic variation in diet–mainly salamanders in the East, introduced earthworms in the KS population Fitch studied so intensively, and reptiles, especially elongate limbless one (snakes, Anniella) out West.
Really fascinating stuff!
In S CA the most common sign of an occupied burrowing owl den seems to be kangaroo rat tails scattered about the opening. Kit foxes leave the same evidence.
Great photos! The newt is actually the closely related Taricha torosa, also very toxic. T. granulosa is not found at Stebbins Cold Canyon, and the eye protrusion looks good for T. torosa.